Different production sites are introducing various kinds of factory automation (FA) technologies. Further, more advanced information processing technologies are being introduced into FA with recent advancements in information and communication technology (ICT).
One proposed application of ICT in FA involves evaluating a device through, for instance, verifying the behavior of the device, or evaluating the stability of the device. This verification and evaluation is performed only through simulation without actually operating the manufacturing device.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2009-018145 (Patent Document 1) discloses a machine tool interference checker provided with a numerical control device (NC device), and the like. The machine tool moves at least one of a work piece or a tool to process the work piece. Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2009-018145 indicates that the interference checker is for preventing a collision when moving the work piece or the tool.